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What has Ji been charged with? For wanting to protest? For being a regime critic? For seeking to harm China's national image at a time -- the Beijing Olympics -- when preserving its image was paramount?

It also exposes how naïve and deceitful it was for the IOC to have claimed that China would open itself up for the Olympic Games, and that the games would open up China.

In fact, it is so laughable that one could almost presume that the IOC was in league with the government and party leadership in Beijing from the start and consistently kept both eyes tightly shut

They had no case. No crime had been committed, not even a minor offence

For years accusations of conflict of interest have dogged Mr. Berlusconi, who owns the country’s leading private television networks and a publishing empire. His government also oversees the state broadcaster RAI.

the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about Ms Kadeer

Ms Kadeer will take part in the screening of the documentary next Saturday.She will also meet members of Australia’s 2000-strong Uighur community.

Her involvement in the festival led to seven Chinese-language films — from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — being withdrawn.

‘‘This latest attack is just extraordinary,’’ the festival director said. ‘‘What’s happened is that this has become a question of Chinese nationalism where it has almost become people’s official duty to register a protest.’’

The controversy brought a wave of local and international publicity. MIFF has been a fixture in the news pages and on the radio. The overseas coverage included mentions in The New Yorker, a live interview with CNN and coverage on the BBC. The attention, Mr Moore hopes, might have a flow-on effect, a reminder to people that this is an important festival. The festival had already become the subject of news stories when director Ken Loach withdrew his feature film, Looking for Eric, because of MIFF sponsorship by the Israeli Government.

"It's a very, very concerted and pointed attack," Mr Moore said. "Everyone's watching this - it's totally global." The email provides instructions for loading tickets into "shopping carts" from the festival's website, and Chinese are being urged to teach others how to "purchase" MIFF tickets online.

   Jia said in a letter to festival organizers that the Urumqi riot had caused many deaths and many people believed the WUC headed by Rebiya Kadeer had unavoidable responsibility for the violence

 "However, the Melbourne film festival organizers have turned it into a political drama by inviting Rebiya Kadeer, a political liar," he said.

The hunt for evidence against Japan in its "scientific hunt" for whales became highly contentious when the crew of the environmental crusader ship Sea Shepherd was accused of piracy and violence after activists threw bottles of "acid" and boarded a Japanese whaling ship.

Tokyo wants to ensure Mr Rudd's first trip to Japan as Prime Minister is positive and concentrates on climate change and potential joint regional aid projects rather than whaling and the perceived snub in his failure to include Japan on last month's 17-day world trip, which included four days in China.

In December, Australia issued a demarche, or formal diplomatic protest, on behalf of numerous nations over Japan's plans to cull about 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

It is estimated that Australia's "evidence gathering" to form a case against Japanese whalers in an international court, which included the voyage of the Oceanic Viking and aerial surveillance, cost taxpayers more than $1 million. The Rudd Government has been "considering" the evidence for three months and has still not made a decision.

pro-Chinese to the point of being anti-Japanese.

"agree to disagree on whaling".

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have signalled they want an end to the diplomatic row with Japan although they still vigorously oppose whaling.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb said yesterday Mr Rudd had to calm relations between Australian and Japan. Mr Robb said Mr Rudd's perceived "China bias" had caused concerns in Indonesia, Japan and India.

Mr Robb said the Prime Minister had sent a "gun boat" after Japanese whaling ships without picking up the phone to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

police fired rubber bullets at protesters

The G20 is going to be the new body counsel that will be the coordinating body for international economic cooperation

financial regulatory reform was the most important agenda item for summit, but that addressing global economic imbalances was also a priority

US proposal calls on economies such as China, Brazil and India to boost domestic consumption

US and Europe would encourage more saving

That's not a sustainable financial situation for the US and that's why we're in the process of adjusting